A Spice Jet flight from Bengaluru to New Delhi was forced to make an emergency landing at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport Nagpur on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday after it developed a technical snag. Nearly 150 passengers were on board the flight (SG8720), all of whom were left stranded at the Nagpur airport for nearly 10 hours. Passengers were irked because of the poor service from the airlines at the time of emergency.
They claimed that the officials concerned of the airlines did not provide accurate information to them about the fault. The alternate flight too was arranged after eight hours. What was even worse that all the passengers on board were forced to stay put in the aircraft carrier from 1.30 am till 5.30 am on Saturday.
Later, passengers were allowed to step out of the aircraft carrier, but this was not the end of their woes. They had to wait for another five hours at the airport for the alternate flight. Sources said, the airlines did not even offer food or refreshment to its passengers. After they were allowed to deboard, Nagpur airport authorities provided tea and snacks to them in the morning. Spice Jet later apologised for the inconvenience caused to the passengers and stated that it was not having any ground staff or counter at the Nagpur to assist the stranded passengers.
At around 6 am, passengers were informed that alternate arrangement has been made and a flight from New Delhi would arrive at Nagpur airport to take them to New Delhi. However, the flight departed from New Delhi around 8.30 am. A team of engineers was also onboard the flight.
After arriving at Nagpur, engineers started maintenance of the aircraft while passengers were taken to New Delhi on the alternative flight, which took off from Nagpur at around 11.30 am. Meanwhile, health condition of one of the passengers turned worse while waiting for the flight at Nagpur. He complained of severe abdominal pain.
Sources said, he was suffering from appendicitis. He was immediately rushed to a private hospital near the airport. Sources said, the Bengaluru-New Delhi flight was the first flight they were operating in Jet Airway’s place. Hence, the airline was not having any ground support to aid the passengers. It is pertinent to note here that domestic players like Spice Jet and others have taken Jet Airways flights on lease after the latter was forced to ground its operation due financial woes.
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